Met Office warns of rare freezing rain and snow set to hit UK | Weather | News
As snow and a “rare weather event” approach, temperatures will drop once again, dropping to -4C in the coming days.
Britons will face freezing rain, which the Met Office warns could occasionally bring down trees and power lines, as another band of low pressure moves across the country from the north. In areas where conditions are not cold enough for snow, freezing rain, an unusual type of liquid precipitation, will descend.
Dramatic weather maps show these showers are likely Sunday night and into Monday morning, with the heaviest rainfall coming in the early hours. Snow is expected as far south as Greater Manchester, but significant settlement is unlikely.
Residents across much of Scotland, Northumberland, Cumbria and County Durham are expected to experience the heaviest freezing rain; This means many people will wake up to ground frost and difficult road conditions.
The Met Office has previously warned of the dangers of freezing rain, a rarely observed weather phenomenon in the UK.
The statement said: “The weight of the ice can sometimes be heavy enough to topple trees and power lines, and the ice layer on the ground effectively turns roads and paths into ice rinks. Freezing rain can also be extremely dangerous for airplanes.”
“Freezing rain is more common in other parts of the world, for example in the United States, where weather systems produce a lot of freezing rain. These are called ice storms, and if enough glaze accumulates on trees or power lines, the weight of the ice can cause them to break, causing large-scale disruption.”
White goods will become more common in the early hours of Monday morning. Metdesk’s weather maps show the most significant snowfall will affect south Lancashire, Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway, and Argyll and Bute.
Recent days have seen relatively mild conditions; The temperature reached 16°C in Hawarden in north Wales on Thursday. But a sharp drop is expected on Sunday, with temperatures dropping to -4C ahead of showers of snow.
Experts say western and northern regions will bear the brunt of the coldest weather in the coming days, driven in part by strong winds blowing from the North Atlantic.
Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Steven Keates said: “Confidence is high that the weekend will be unstable, but there is some uncertainty about the exact path of the low pressure system.
Small changes in its path can significantly affect where the heaviest rain and strongest winds occur. “This means that while some areas may experience devastating conditions, others may experience much less severe impacts.”
